General Knowledge Quiz

A weekly set of questions to entertain you or infuriate you during these difficult times. No prizes awarded, no answers need to be submitted, just see what you know – or maybe learn. Answers will be posted here next Monday morning, along with the next set of questions. The latest quiz is now posted here at the top and the answers to last week's questions can be found right at the foot of the page.

CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ - No 5 – 28 April

AN INDIAN THEMED QUIZ

General Knowledge

1 Who was the last Viceroy of India?

2 What relation was Indira Gandhi to Jawaharlal Nehru?

3 Which much loved Hindu god has the head of an elephant?

4 How did Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulka bring glory to India?

5 Where exactly would you find the Koh-i-Noor?

6 Gandhi led a march to challenge a British tax on what?

7 Sikh men traditionally have the last name Singh – what does this mean in English?

8 What links the equestrian world with ‘The Blue City’?

Literature

1 In ‘Jewel In The Crown’, who played Ronald Merrick?

2 Who are ‘Midnight’s Children’ ?

3 In ‘Life of Pi’, who is Richard Parker?

4 In which book/film would you find Mrs Moore, Dr Aziz and The Marabar Caves?

5 What is the name of the Indian poet/writer, born 1861 and awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1913?

Geography

1 Name three countries which share a land border with India?

2 The city of Chennai was formerly called what?

3 Which city is known as the ‘pink city’?

4 The town now called Udhagamandalam was known in the days of the Raj as ‘Snooty ...........’?

5 ‘Chandra Bose’ is to be found at Dum Dum but what is it and where is it?

Food and Drink

1 Turmeric comes from (a) seed, (b) root, (c) flower or (d)bean?

2 Name two of the spices in Garam Masala.

3 What is ‘Ghee’?

4 What is ‘Kulfi’ ?

5 What is ‘Jaggery’?

6 Which town in north east India gives its name to a variety of tea?

7 Which state in north east India gives its name to another variety of tea?

8 What is the Indian name for a vat-shaped, clay oven heated with charcoal or wood?

Quiz No 1 - 30 Mar

1 What is the origin of the word ‘language’?

2 What is ‘opera bouffe’?

3 In which city was the first public performance of Handel’s Messiah?

4 The Norwich School of Art was founded by whom?

5 Of which British prime minister was Nobel Laureate, Dorothy Hodgkin the academic tutor?

6 Maputo is the capital of an African country. What was the city’s former name and what is the country’s name?

7 Who introduced Premium Bonds to the United Kingdom – and when?

8 If you were in a Hummum, what would you most likely be doing?

9 Name in descending order the five ranks of British peerage and give the equivalent female titles.

10 Was Dixie Dean an Australian bandit, professional footballer or a jazz musician?

11 Of which party was prime minister Stanley Baldwin the leader?

12 What nationality was Juan Fangio and for what was he best known?

13 In which county is Kedleston Hall and which family gave it to the National Trust?

14 Florence Nightingale lived through the reigns of which British monarchs?

15 Salisbury Cathedral was built in a remarkably short period of time – but between which years?

16 Which British composer, successful during WW 1, was jailed during WW 2 for mis-using petrol rationing coupons?

17 What is The Dukeries – and where is it?

18 On whose tomb is the inscription 'Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice' -and where is that tomb?

19 Which is the longest river in France?

20 Who wrote ‘A Town Like Alice’?

Scroll down to below Quiz 2 for the answers to Quiz 1

CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ - No 2  - 6 April

1 Name a vegetable which has all 5 vowels in its name, each used once only. Too easy? Now a fruit with all 5 vowels used once only.

2 Find an English word containing the letter ‘i’ six times and with no other vowel.

3 Cornelia has a sister whose name is an anagram of hers. What is her name?

The names of both girls are made of the letters of their mother’s and father’s first names. What are the parents’ names? There are several possible answers.

4 9876543210 = 999

Make this a correct sum by inserting five ‘ + ‘ signs. There are two possible solutions. Maybe more?

The above four questions are from the Guardian Book of Puzzles, by kind permission of Chris Maslanka.

5 Which Prime Minister was assassinated in the Lobby of the House of Commons in 1812?

6 Who founded the model town of Port Sunlight in Cheshire?

7 At which castle was the investiture of Prince Charles in 1969?

8 What did the letters GOM and MOG mean when referring to Prime Minister Gladstone?

9 Which play made Gay rich and Rich gay?

10 Which London theatre is named after a famous Irish playwright?

11 Which titled family has the hereditary right to the office of Earl Marshal of England?

12 Who is the new Governor of the Bank of England?

13 Who was the sculptor of the lions around Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square?

14 Which was the first flag to reach the moon?

15 Which C20th novel has the epigraph ‘Only Connect’ ?

16 On the 100th anniversary of American Independence, the people of France made a presentation to the American people. What was it?

17 Which star’s real name was Frances Gumm?

18 Who is depicted on the reverse of the new, polymer £20 note?

19 Which famous man’s ancestors lived at Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire?

20 Which is the highest peak in Northern Ireland?

CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ - No 3 – 13 April

Questions numbered 1 to 10 are on well known women.

1 Which writer created and owned the ‘white garden’ at Sissinghurst Castle?

2 Born in London in 1836, she practiced as a doctor for women and children and, when elected in Aldeburgh in 1908, became the first woman mayor in Britain.

3 Not only the first woman to receive a Nobel prize but the first person to receive two.

4 For what is Valentina Tereshkova remembered?

5 Where did the ‘flying duchess’ live?

6 Which dancer was strangled by her own scarf?

7 Who told Churchill that if she was married to him she would poison his coffee, to which he replied that if he were married to her, he would drink it?

8 Who single handedly almost destroyed the British egg market?

9 Which famous writer said the good thing about being married to an archaeologist was that the older she got, the more interesting he found her?

10 Camilla is rumoured to have chatted up Charles by saying ‘my great-grandmother was a royal mistress, so how about it?’. To whom was she referring?

11 Which was Britain’s first national park?

12 Who was born at 17 Bruton Street, London, W 1, in 1926?

13 Who is the Roman goddess of agriculture, identified with the Greek goddess Demeter?

14 What is the name of the bell used at Lloyds in London?

15 Brooklyn and Staten Island are connected by which single span suspension bridge?

The following brain teasers are by kind permission of Chris Maslanka, from the Guardian Book of Puzzles

16 Make a four-syllable word from F T A B I Y E. Add one letter and turn it into a three-syllable word.

17 A monosyllabic word of nine letters with only one vowel, and no ‘Y’s.

18 A punter bet on three consecutive races, each time losing two thirds of the money he had. After the 3rd race, he was left with 50p. How much did he lose?

19 A classroom has a magnetic blackboard. A clumsy student knocked the numbers and symbols off. He replaced them as 2 x 51 = 43. What sum should they make? A number 6 was then discovered under a desk. What sum could then be made?

20 A market stall advertised fruit prices as;

a. Pineapple and mango £2

b. Starfruit and pineapple £1.60

c. Mango and starfruit £1.20

How much was each fruit?

CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ - No 4 – 20 April

1 In which county is Malin Head?

2 In which year were life peerages first granted to women?

3 Which ennobled man was the grandfather of two queens of England and who were those queens?

4 Who was the first woman to be elected to the Westminster parliament?

5 What is the family name of the duke of Devonshire?

6 Who was the first president of the Supreme Court, in London?

7 Who said ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’?

8 What is the name of the recently deceased singer/songwriter who held a final note for a record breaking 18 seconds?

9 On which river does the Swiss city of Lucerne stand?

10 Who was the architect of Coventry Cathedral?

11 What is the common name of the tree with the botanic name Fraxinus?

12 What was the name of the American man whose funeral service was held in Westminster Abbey in 1869, before his body was returned for burial in the USA, on board the Royal Navy’s newest warship, HMS Monarch and escorted by USS Plymouth?

13 Who painted the Arnolfini Marriage?

14 What is the name of John Ruskin’s former home in Cumbria?

15 Who are the speakers of ‘High Valyrian’?

The following five questions come from the Guardian Book of Puzzles, by kind permission of Chris Maslanka

16 A group of friends each ordered drinks in a café. 12 had milk shakes, 14 had coffee, 9 had both. How many were in the group?

17 How many five-lettered words can you find which end with ‘ight’ (not counting archaic dight or wight)?

The occupations of these three are anagrams of their names;

18 ERICA CLIENT

19 ANNE BAGMARK

20 THERESA CLOOCH.

ANSWERS FOR CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ No 1

1 ‘Language’ from the Latin word ‘Lingua’, meaning tongue.

2 Comic Opera

3 Dublin

4 John Crome, aka ‘Old Crome’ to differentiate between him and his son John Berney Crome.

5 Margaret Thatcher

6 Lorenco Marques, so named until 1976. Mozambique.

7 Harold MacMillan, as Chancellor of the Exchequer on 1 November 1956

8 Taking a Turkish bath

9 Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron. Duchess, Marchioness, Countess, Viscountess and Baroness.

10 Professional footballer

11 Conservative Party

12 Argentian – Five times World Champion Formula 1 driver.

13 Derbyshire – given by the Curzon family.

14 This was not intended to be a trick question and might have been better worded ‘In the reigns of which British monarchs did Florence Nightingale live?’ She was born on 12 May 1820, the year in which George IV had ascended the throne on 29 January. He was followed by William IV, Victoria and Edward VII. The latter dying on 6 May 1910 to be succeeded by George V. Florence Nightingale died on 13 August that year, so she was alive during five reigns – or, three if you interpreted the question as how many ‘complete’ reigns.

15 Salisbury Cathedral was built between 1220 and 1258

16 Ivor Novello

17 The Dukeries is an area in north west Nottinghamshire and the location of several ducal estates.

18 Sir Christopher Wren – in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral.

19 The Loire

20 Neville Shute

ANSWERS FOR CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ No 2

1 CAULIFLOWER and ORTANIQUE

2 I N D I V I S I B I L I T Y

3 Sister is CAROLINE and parents could be RON & ALICE, RON & CELIA or ERIC & NOLA

4 9 + 8 + 765 +4 + 3 +210 = 999 or 9 + 8 + 7 + 654 + 321 + 0 = 999

5 SPENCER PERCEVAL

6 WILLIAM HESKETH LEVER later LORD LEVERHUME

7 CAERNARFON / CARNARVON

8 GRAND OLD MAN, MURDERER OF GORDON

9 THE BEGGARS OPERA

10 THE SHAW THEATRE on Euston Road

11 The HOWARD FAMILY/The DUKES OF NORFOLK

12 ANDREW BAILEY

13 EDWIN LANDSEER

14 LUNA 2 carried SOVIET PENNANTS when it impacted on 14 September 1959

15 HOWARDS END by E M FORSTER

16 THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

17 JUDY GARLAND

18 J M W TURNER

19 GEORGE WASHINGTON

20 SLIEVE DONARD at 2,796 ft

ANSWERS FOR CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ No 3

1 Vita Sackville West

2 Elizabeth Garret Anderson

3 Marie Curie

4 First Woman in Space

5 Woburn Abbey

6 Isadora Duncan

7 Nancy Astor

8 Edwina Currie

9 Agatha Christie

10 Alice Keppel

11 Peak District National Park

12 Her Majesty The Queen

13 Ceres

14 Lutine Bell

15 Verrazzano – Narrows Bridge

16 Beatify Beautify

17 Strengths

18 £13

19 4 x 13 = 52 3 x 54 = 162

20 Pineapple £1.20, Mango 80p, Starfruit 40p

ANSWERS FOR CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ No 4

1 Donegal

2 1958

3 Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. Queen Mary II & Queen Anne

4 Constance Markievicz (although as an Irish republican she did not take her seat)

5 Cavendish

6 Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers

7 William Morris

8 Bill Withers

9 River Reuss

10 Basil Spence

11 Ash

12 George Peabody

13 Jan van Eyck

14 Brantwood

15 The priests in 'Game of Thrones'

16 17

17 9. Starting with B F L M N R S T E

18 Electrician

19 Bank Manager

20 School teacher

ANSWERS FOR CHARLBURY WEB SITE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ No 5

1 Mountbatten
2 Daughter
3 Ganesh (aka Ganesha)
4 Played cricket for India
5 ‘The Queen Mother’s Crown’/Crown Jewels/Tower of London
6 Salt
7 Lion
8 The city of Jodhpur is known as the Blue City

Literature
1 Tim Piggot-Smith
2 Those born at the moment of India’s Independence 15/8/1947
3 The tiger
4 A Passage to India
5 RabindranathTagore

Geography
1 Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan all have land borders with India
2 Madras
3 Jaipur
4 Snooty Ooty
5 Chandra Bose is the international airport serving Kolkata/Calcutta. It is located in, and was formerly known as, Dum Dum.

Food and Drink
1 (b) root
2 Cumin, cardamon, ground coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg
3 Clarified butter
4 Ice cream
5 Sugar (from sap of palm tree)
6 Darjeeling
7 Assam
8 Tandoor

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